football | Wait until next year

November 22, 2009

Stuff I’ve enjoyed this week

For those of you new to the blog, I quite often put together a list of sports-related links I’ve enjoyed over the past week. As part of the broadening of this blog’s horizons, I thought I’d put together a more general list this time. I hope it leads you to some interesting corners of the internet, and as always if you have any links to share, please do!

Non-sporting stuff for your enjoyment

Regular commenter and nicest guy on the internet, Steven Harris, has been talking about meeting celebrities, and remembering the time he met a Beatle. You might see in the comments that I have had quite a celeb-spotting week, seeing both Lisa Snowdon and Angela Rippon. Please note, I don’t mix in showbiz circles. Nor do I stalk people off the telly. Honestly.

Another commenter here, Nathan Henrion, has recently published his book for the Kindle. I’m looking forward to hearing how the experiment goes, with such a new and relatively untested medium. I’m going to have to buy the book itself very soon. It’s a steal at 99 cents.

Raven Mack is always worth a read. His lastest post is about pumpkins, and a whole lot more.

Sporting stuff for your enjoyment

The ever-reliable BaseballGB is reviewing the 2009 season a division at a time. Sadly, the verdict of the New York Mets as the “New York Mess” is right on the money.

Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young Award this week, ahead of Chris Carpenter, leading to a wave of controversy among the baseball internet-y fraternity. Wezen Ball serves up a nice little parody of the uproar.

There’s been a lot written about France beating Ireland to go to the World Cup, via Thierry Henry’s hand. Twohundredpercent writes perhaps the most level-headed assessment of events.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks!

6 Comments

November 13, 2009

Where to watch the international football this weekend

So, the league programme gets interrupted again by an international break. This weekend sees the first legs of the play-offs to decide the final spots for next year’s World Cup finals. Plus, a fair few meaningless friendlies, including Brazil versus England in Qatar in an exercise to make as much money as possible, and annoy as many players, managers and fans as possible too, by the looks of things.

Here we go with Saturday’s international sport on television for those in the UK…

New Zealand vs Bahrain starts at 7am on British Eurosport for all you early risers
Wales vs Scotland is at 3pm on Sky Sports 1
Russia vs Slovenia is on ESPN from 4pm
Brazil vs England kicks off at 5pm on ITV1
Northern Ireland vs Serbia is at 5.30pm on Sky Sports 1
Republic of Ireland vs France is at 8pm on Sky Sports 1

Plenty of footy then this weekend..fill your boots!

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November 8, 2009

Sports stuff I’ve enjoyed this week

We’re in the midst of a jam-packed weekend of sport. David Haye slayed the giant Nikolai Valuev, which I may well blog about in the next couple of days, Australia beat England in the rugby (boo), and there’s been fun and games in the football, particularly the Manchester City/Burnley 3-3 draw, and a fair few upsets in the first round of the FA Cup.

And there’s still the circus of Chelsea/Manchester United to come!

But here’s what I’ve enjoyed perusing the rest of this week…

The Yankees won the World Series this week, in no small part because of the strength of their closing pitcher, Mariano Rivera. The New York Times has produced a funky graphic to illustrate just how good he is in the post-season.

Meanwhile Matt at BaseballGB has written a comprehensive breakdown of performances in this year’s World Series.

And it’s not all about the winners, you know, as The Daily Something decides on the ten best performances by World Series losers.

In football, meanwhile, The Political Economy of Football looked at Rangers’ financial woes and twohundredpercent looked at the 1946 FA Cup.

So, what have you enjoyed reading this week?

November 6, 2009

What is it with managers helping damsels in distress?

Not that long ago we heard about Hull City manager Phil Brown talking down a woman contemplating throwing herself off the Humber Bridge.

Now another story. World Series winning coach, Joe Girardi, on his way home from the game, reportedly came to the assistance of a woman who had crashed her car, flagging down police officers to take care of the situation.

Amid so many whining, manipulative, selfish managers in sport (I’m naming no names!), it’s good to see there are a few knights in shining armour out there.

Or maybe we just forget that people in the public eye are human and decent at heart, like the rest of us?

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November 4, 2009

Late, late shows in Champions League

This blog seems to have had a certain bee in its bonnet about stoppage time, with one post, on Manchester United, injury time and the need for reform, proving a popular one.

So, it was interesting to look through last night’s Champions League results and see so many late goals.

In eight games, there were four goals in injury time. Those for Atletico Madrid and Manchester United (them again!) were game-changing.

In total, 12 goals out of the 26 scored in those games took place after the 80th minute. By my rudimentary calculations, that’s over 46 per cent of goals scored in the final stages.

So what does this mean? Without any statistics for games generally as a ‘control’, it’s hard to say for sure. But why let that stop us speculating? Tiredness must be a factor. Games will often open up as they reach their conclusion. A losing side, such as Atletico or United, will push more in the final moments. A side doing particularly well, like Marseille last night, might knock in a few more goals. Maybe this happens more in the Champions League, as qualification is in sight?

Either way, this tiny sample of games shows how important fitness and concentration is, right up to the final whistle. It also shows how important injury time can be to the result of a game, or even to a team’s goal difference. Too important to just leave to the referee, I’d suggest.

There may well be more late, late shows tonight.

Liverpool are one particular exponent of pulling something out of the fire late on. I do, however, wonder if this is one ‘must win’ game too far? I’m not sure pinning your hopes on an injured Torres is the best idea, but then again, even an injured Torres is better than 95 per cent of strikers in the world. If he plays, that is. Here’s hoping…

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Category: football